Vietnam’s resorts - few in number, poor in quality

12/09/2006 (GMT+7)

The development of tourism in Vietnam has created a boom in newly built resorts across the country. However, it has been revealed that running these businesses is not easy.

An official of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) found it hard to answer the question about how many resorts there were in Vietnam. The reason given was that what a resort was had not been defined. This has created difficulties in classifying resorts into different categories. Currently, classifying resorts is based on the standards set for hotels.

Vietnam is in the early stage of resort development. Experts say that there are 26 3-5 star resorts nationwide. Currently, the number of rooms in these 26 resorts is 1,972, accounting for 0.4% of total hotel and resort rooms in Vietnam. Most resorts in the country are in well-known tourism sites such as Ha Long, Nha Trang, Vung Tau, Phu Quoc. They are operating under the forms of either joint venture or 100% foreign invested.

Vietnam has set an ambitious target to receive a large number of tourists over the next five years. Therefore, it is predicted that the country will need to have more hotels and resorts. This has resulted in the launch of many different investment projects to build resorts across the country.

Recently, many big international corporations have eyed Vietnam for the construction of resorts.

The Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Department reported that the city had about 50 resorts helping to accommodate the three millions tourists coming to the city every year. But the city is predicted to be short of hotel and resort rooms in the near future as the number of tourists coming to the city will increase.

Many other tourism sites in Vietnam are also in need of more resorts. But a lot of investors say that planning work and other red tape have discouraged them from investing. Pham Hoang Minh, an investor in Phu Hai resort in Mui Ne, said he had had to spend at least one year to complete procedures for his project to be begun.

However, with what is in place, it is said that the quality of the services provided by resorts in Vietnam is still poor and unprofessional. According to one VNAT official, several complaints by tourists have been made about the service quality of the 4-star resort of Furama in Da Nang. Many other resorts also have similar problems such as language proficiency of resort workers, hygiene and incomplete services.

So, in the long run, besides opening more resorts, Vietnam needs to find ways to improve the quality of the services provided at the resorts as well. With more investment from professional and well-known names in the field of resort management, it is hoped that resort service providers in Vietnam will have chances to learn from the experience brought in by these foreign companies.